“I hate that it happened, but I’m not surprised at all,” Patricia Carroll, 34, told journalist Richard Prince. Prince writes a blog for the Maynard Institute, which promotes racial diversity in journalism.

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“This situation could happen to me at the Democratic convention or standing on the street corner,” she said. “Racism is a global issue.”

Two attendees threw nuts at Carroll on Tuesday while yelling “This is how we feed the animals.” They were removed from the convention floor. Carroll said the head of the delegation — she wasn’t sure of which state — told her the nut-throwers were alternates, not delegates.

She also noted there weren’t many black women at the convention in Tampa.

“This is Florida, and I’m from the Deep South,” said Carroll, an Alabama native. “You come to places like this, you can count the black people on your hand. They see us doing things they don’t think I should do.”

Carroll said Americans shouldn’t overstate racial progress.

“People were living in euphoria for a while,” she said. “People think we’ve gone further than we have.”